dtremit

@Smithy — it seems to have "renewed" itself, this morning the countdown timer says 2 days 14 hours. Being able to see everything on a single page is a huge help compared to previous sales! Incidentally, the pair of oven mitts for $10 is excellent quality and good for folks with bigger hands. Still using mine from my cookware set purchased in 2003.

I am speaking from theory, rather than from experience — but I wonder if it would work better if you didn't knead it all the way to a windowpane? The elasticity sounds like the behavior of really strong gluten — and adding that much oil would reduce gluten formation. I also see a couple of recipes that use some portion of hot water, which is also a common technique when making scallion pancakes. Might be worth a try?

This deal (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) appears to be back for Cyber Monday, in case anyone regretted missing it last time. Also appears to be $120 at Kohls after the site-wide 20% off code is applied.

@Smithy — I'm curious how the melt and refreeze experiment worked — did you notice any difference in texture from the originals? And what kind of base were the original chocolate and vanilla (custard or non-custard)?

Huh — the links within recipes Grist are working fine for me, even though the page numbers displayed are the print numbers and don't match the Kindle "pages." Out of curiosity — what kind of device are you reading Kindle books on? (I did notice that because of the different pagination, there were sometimes links to recipes on the same page that appear not to work — e.g., the recipe for "True Aioli" has a link to "basic mayo (page 37)". In the view I was in, "basic mayo" was on the same page, so the link did nothing. When I zoomed in so less was on screen, the link worked.)

I agree that a lot of Kindle books are poorly formatted, but at these discount prices it's nice to have an electronic copy alongside a print one. It's particularly true for oversized books — titles like Kenji Lopez-Alt's The Wok are great to look at but lousy to read in a comfortable chair. That said, if you're willing to at least check them out, a lot of libraries now will let you borrow e-books through services like Overdrive; most have a "Read with Kindle" option. That would let you weed through them without obligation.

A belated, picture-free report on the amusingly named Weee!, which is another delivery service focused on Asian products and produce. I placed an order from them a couple of weeks ago — mainly I was aiming to buy some fun lunch stuff for my partner, and stock up in advance of a dinner I was cooking for some friends. So my order wasn't entirely comprehensive; in particular, I didn't order any frozen items or raw meat as I knew I might not be able to get to the box right away. That said, I did order some refrigerated items — tofu, herbs, etc. — and they came in great shape. Similar packaging to Imperfect, with a silver bubble bag containing the refrigerated items and an ice pack. Produce was all fresh. They also did a good job of separating heavy items like glass bottles from lightweight snacks and noodles, and the glass items were *very* well wrapped in expandable paper and tape; I had to get out a knife to cut them out of the cushioning. Big thumbs up for that. One thing I really liked was their ordering system — you place an order for a future date of your choice. Right now (a little after noon on Saturday) it's offering me a range from next day (Sunday) to two weeks out (Saturday the 15th). You get free shipping on any order over $35; it's $5 if you order less. But — after you've placed your free shipping order, you can add on additional orders of any amount for the same day, with no additional shipping charge. I had forgotten a few items in my first order, and that feature was really convenient. I'm not sure who they use for delivery — I suspect they contract it to someone but it wasn't obvious to who — but they had good tracking and notifications the day of shipment, and the order was delivered well before noon. Definitely would order again. I doubt I'll ever stop going to our local markets, but as someone not fluent in Chinese, it's really helpful for me to be able to browse slowly and translate things to make sure I'm getting the right fermented bean product for the recipe I'm planning to make. You can search by Chinese characters on the English site, which is really nice for things that have variable translations like 甜面酱 (tian mian jiang) — the English translations for that range from "soy bean paste" to "sweet bean sauce," "sweetened soy bean paste," and "sweet soybean paste." Just being able to figure out things like that without staring at shelves and characters on my phone for five minutes per item is enough for me to order occasionally. Prices are generally quite reasonable and they have a lot of specials. Quantities can be a little more than I need for some things — I don't really need half a pound of Thai basil, but I don't mind a bit extra when that half pound's $4. A few things seem high — a lot of these Asian mail order services seem to have super fancy fruit at super fancy prices, and there's definitely some of that here (a single Diamond Sweet Melon for $10, or longans for $14/lb). But they don't seem to upcharge for basic stuff like green papaya, and they do have some interesting stuff at reasonable prices (lots of interesting varieties of grapes for $2.99/lb). My only other wish list item would be better representation of SE Asian ingredients — they don't consistently have things like makrut lime leaves or galangal, and their selection of Thai pantry stuff is pretty limited. UmamiCart seems slightly better for these but neither is really comprehensive. Compared to UmamiCart, which I wrote up previously — there's a lot of overlap, I would say in general Weee! is better for staple ingredients, whereas UmamiCart has a lot more fun stuff and small batch / artisanal / fancy products. When they offer the same produce items, though, Weee! appears to be a bit cheaper. Overall, a thumbs up from me; already looking forward to my next order.

Helpful reference from UC Davis on sanitizing with bleach.

A couple of sorbet successes recently: Lychee (2 drained cans of lychees in syrup, pureed, with a tablespoon or so of liquid glucose and syrup from the can to top off to the max fill line) Mango-Coconut (used up a 14oz can of Del Monte mango bits after my Indian puree seemed off; pureed and added 1T glucose. That got me to about 2/3 full; made up the rest with coconut milk and a few TB of sugar) Both did great after a single spin. I didn't go through a formal calculation of sugar percentage — froze these in a hurry — but I think they were on the lower side.

Indeed, the primary ingredients (outside of flavoring and sweetening agents) appear to be "modified cornstarch," maltodextrin, and xanthan gum, all of which seem to pop up in ice cream recipes from time to time. That said, one thing I've noticed about Facebook recipes is they seem to always include a weird surplus of flavored, sweetened ingredients — over in the Instant Pot group people are obsessed with yogurt made with flavored creamers. No thank you. It works fine with just milk.

If you zoom in on the product image it appears that the new one has the ability to process either the top or bottom half of the container separately, which is kind of nice. It also appears to have a countdown timer, though I question its utility given it's a single digit! The drinkables don't appeal to me much (and my inner curmudgeon is irked by the words "creamiccino" and "slushi"). But I suppose if I were in the market for the first time, I might like the new one better.

Really looking forward to your review — that looks like a *fantastic* design for a <$1k machine. Ticks a lot of boxes for me: fairly compact, >12" seal bar, deep enough to seal small jars on its own, and an accessory port.

Yeah, I think if you take stuff out of your cart during the shopping window it wouldn't ship out. I personally prefer the "old way" and would be sad to see it go away, but I imagine there's a number of people who'd like to "set and forget."

I just got an email from Umamicart noting that they are now delivering to a much wider area — looks like they're expanding from BOS/NYC/DC to everything east of the Mississippi (except, oddly, Louisiana).

Misfits added an option back in May called a "Weekly Grocery Plan"; if you opt into it, it works like Imperfect and auto-ships a pre-filled cart: "When you shop at Misfits Market you’re already cutting out the hassle of a grocery trip. Now you can put your shopping on autopilot with our new weekly grocery plan. Just opt-in to the plan and we’ll pre-fill your cart with some of your favorite items each week so you’ll never forget to stock your fridge. Your picks will be personalized based on your past orders, and you can also select what you like and dislike in our new Preferences feature so you’ll get first dibs on what you love." It's supposed to have been "opt in" for any existing customers, though. So unless @MetsFan5 opted in, there should have been no auto-shipment. (It should also be possible to opt back out.)

Hey, it's been a long couple of years 🤣

I'm always amazed when someone manages to mess up dumplings — they're so easy to get right! But so many supermarket ones are terrible. In the grand eGullet tradition of enabling, I am obligated to point out that Mala Market sells that same (excellent) doubanjiang and a lot of other high quality versions of Sichuan ingredients. I have been using their 10 year Baoning vinegar as a sort of finishing vinegar for a lot of Chinese dishes or dipping sauces lately and have been very impressed. (Expensive, but it's quite a big bottle.) Their Sichuan peppercorns are notably better than the ones I've gotten from supermarkets as well — and it's the only place in the US I have ever seen caiziyou (unrefined rapeseed oil, traditionally used a lot in Sichuan). A few things they sell are a bit ridiculously priced (like the zhacai and yacai) — I don't begrudge a small business the markup, but I can get those easily elsewhere. All of this is making me want to cook more Sichuan food — think it will be on the menu this week! Might be time to finally set up the outdoor wok burner...

Oh, totally. A while back I used up a bunch of odds and ends to make an "allium oil" that I double strained and kept in the fridge — useful for all sorts of things. A jar of the Vietnamese pre-crisped shallots and garlic would be a good mix in on lazy nights.

Pricing for "upscale" chili crisps seems to be all over the map. We have been buying a local one from someone who does Malaysian food pop-ups — his 8oz jars are $12. But I saw another from a local restaurant for $24! 😳 I make my own chili oil but am always terrified of anything homemade involving garlic in oil. I know it is probably completely safe if the garlic is shaved and fried (and if store-bought peeled garlic is used, as it's acidulated), but I tend towards the paranoid sometimes 😅 Yours looks amazing, though — might convince me to take the plunge.

I'm getting big Juicero vibes from this. I can't imagine buying a $350 machine dependent on some unknown company's proprietary pods. Doesn't much matter how good they are if you can't buy them. As an aside, it looks like the Frolic is more similar to the Pacojet in two (relatively unimportant) ways — the "bayonet" mount for the pod holder, and the way the blade mounts to the motor shaft. The Chris Young video upthread noted that those were two areas where the Creami changed the Pacojet design to make it a bit more consumer friendly. I'm curious to know if that means the Frolic is basically a carbon copy of the Pacojet from the (now expired) patent.

@Maison Rustique — my experience has been that Misfits does better than Imperfect on anything that needs to stay frozen. Much better packaging. I think because it has to endure FedEx they have to put in more effort. Imperfect is still usually fine but every few boxes I end up with an insulated pack they've left half open and have to pitch a few things. They always refund, but it's annoying. Have mostly stopped ordering raw meat from them so I don't have to worry about it.

Did you use instant coffee, and if so, what brand? I am always wanting to buy some for dessert use but never know how to pick a good one.

That's odd — I've not had any issues with the knobs on the Le Creuset I have, despite using them in the oven quite a bit. I did proactively replace the knob on one pan with their newer stainless one ($10 then — they've gone way up!) when I started using it for bread baking, but the other pan is going on 20 years old and the phenolic knob is in great shape. They now say the plastic knobs are rated at 500°F but I swear it used to be lower. I did manage to somehow ruin the finish on one of the dutch ovens after someone burned tomato sauce onto it really badly. I tried just about everything to get that stuff off; it worked in the end but the interior finish is dull and now everything sticks to it. Fortunately that pan is just the right size for bread baking so I have just used it for that of late. One of these days I'll get around to making a warranty claim.

Ah! This one would have been ideal, but alas, I didn't see it yesterday and it's out of stock today. That said, I suspect I might actually be happier with the Le Creuset for this particular shape of pan, thanks to the light interior. It would get a lot of use with things where seeing the food's color clearly would help.

Wirecutter reviewed it very positively though they balked at the price. The $99 Camp Chef looks like an intriguing alternative — it doesn't have the nice helper handles, but for a 60% discount it might be fine. Plus I suspect I could find a non-bread use for a 12 quart cast iron pan (and large oval skillet) at some point. (Edited to add — though you might need to factor in the cost of a pair of welding gloves to get the lid off.)